By Barbara J. Eikmeier
It was a few anxiety-filled days, in the aftermath of Hurricane Helene, waiting to hear from our daughter, who had just moved to a small mountain community in western North Carolina. Her community was spared the massive flooding and power outages, losing only cell service and internet for a few days.
Once service was restored, we talked nearly every day. She talked about the people who lived in the mountains who were completely cut off due to washed out roads. I’m not from the mountains of North Carolina or the Appalachians, but I know about those remote areas from books I’ve read.
Several years ago, within a short period of time, I read two unrelated books about the Pack Horse Librarians of Appalachia, who delivered books to mountain homes. The Book Woman of Troublesome Creek, by Kim Michele Richardson, 2019, while fiction, included historical photos from the WPA project. Until reading The Book Woman of Troublesome Creek, I had never heard of the WPA’s Pack Horse Librarians project and after studying the photos and reading every single caption was intrigued enough to research the topic more.
Soon after finishing the book I recommended it to a friend who said she was already reading it. But she wasn’t. She was reading a totally different book, also fiction, also about the Pack Horse Librarians. We swapped books and I read, The Giver of Stars, by JoJo Moyes, 2021.
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The stories of the Pack Horse Librarians have stayed with me these past years, so naturally, when I saw Pack Mules being used to haul supplies to remote locations cut off from civilization by Hurricane Helene’s flood waters, I began to follow their stories. The Mountain Mule Packer Ranch has posted regular social media updates with many pictures showing the mules packing into the mountains, off trail, because the trails were washed away. Initially they packed in food, water, blankets and flashlights. Later they brought fencing materials and feed for livestock. The posts often include the mules’ names and bits about their personalities, stories of how volunteers prepare their loads and manage ground operations, and they describe how people, trapped in their homes for 6-8 days on their own, were just as happy to see the mules as they were to get supplies.
As temporary road repairs are completed and the formerly inaccessible areas reopen to ATVs and other motorized vehicles, the pack mules move on to locations still in need of their services.
Of course the pack mules’ story is one of many recovery operations taking place in areas affected by Hurricane Helene. It resonated with me because of those books I read about the Pack Horse Librarians.
If you’re interested in learning more about the Pack Horse Librarians of Applalachia, libromaniacs has compiled a list of ten books on the topic, including the two mentioned in this post. Here is a link. https://libromaniacs.com/books-about-librarians-on-horseback/
Barbara J. Eikmeier is a quilter, writer, student of quilt history, and lover of small-town America. Raised on a dairy farm in California, she enjoys placing her characters in rural communities.
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